Mel Ramos

O from the Hollywood Suite, Pop Art Painting by Mel Ramos

2009

Orpheus and Eurydice Erle Loran, American (1905–1999) Date: 1949 Oil on Masonite, signed and dated lower left Size: 24 x 36 inches

Edge John Hardy, American (1923–2014) Date: 1997 Oil on Wood, signed Size: 24 x 18 in. (60.96 x 45.72 cm)

Title: Garden of Earthly Delights Artist: TheDirtyFabulous Media: Oil on metal with polyurethane varnish Size: 60 x 40 inches / 153 x 102cm Year created: 2012-2014 Societies have long employed images that visualize their belief systems or attempt to encapsulate a narrative of our human destiny. This work follows in that tradition. The uppermost vignette is a silhouette from the nursery rhyme “Jack be nimble”, a children’s rhyme that refers to a 19th century game and a form of fortune telling. In Roman mythology Parcae (plural) were the personifications of fate. They are used in this painting as bookend figures on either side of a cosmic machine that answers questions of fate. Three vintage light bulbs labeled “yes”, “maybe” and “no” sit atop the clock – like machine and illuminate answers to humanity’s eternal questions. At the top of the composition are several re- configured tarot / divination cards belonging to an anonymous person circa 1930’s. The cards here are labeled; satisfaction dark woman, jealousy, dark man and betrayal. The grouping of these four cards refers to both positive and negative potentials concerning fate and offer clues to the viewer on a number of possible scenarios it could describe. The lower portion of the picture contains two silhouetted vignettes on either side of a central image of stars and planets against a dark void. The left image is of two children in a small wagon being pulled by a beetle. This is a reference to Egyptian mythology and the sun god Khepri. who personifies birth / rebirth. Khepri is portrayed as a beetle that pushes the sun across the sky. Here the young innocents...

Contemporary, Pop, Surrealistic, Figurative, Nude